This one was certainly fun to write — aviation has always been one of my core interests and so seeing this one on the pitch sheet really jumped out at me.
This is the article as it is preserved in my records. After a few rounds of edits from my editor, it passed from my hands into the Daily’s internal system and received a few more from highers-up. As such, it may not represent the final version as it went into print or was published online.
By Matthew Hipolito
Turn your eyes skyward this winter and you might just catch a glimpse of UW — and Washington state — history.
This Saturday, Nov. 2, a small box emblazoned with the words “University of Washington” will set off for the final frontier atop a 139-foot Northrop-Grumman Antares 230 rocket. That box, dubbed HuskySat-1 and designed by the Husky Satellite Lab (HuskySatLab), will spend the next two months attached to the International Space Station (ISS).
In January, the satellite will finally be deployed to orbit from a capsule named the S.S. Alan Bean. During that time, the ISS — and HuskySat-1 — will be visible from Earth.
“[HuskySat-1] is the first student-built satellite from Washington state,” HuskySatLab faculty adviser Robert Winglee said. “It’s called a CubeSat. It’s a small satellite; it’s only about the size of a loaf of bread.”
HuskySat-1 is a technology demonstration satellite, meaning that it is designed to test and evaluate two new technologies developed here at the UW: a K-band communication system and a new sulfur-based plasma thruster. Satellites like HuskySat, Winglee explained, often face limitations in propulsion due to their size. HuskySat-1, using its new engine, will be one of the first small satellites in the US able to change its orbit.
HuskySatLab co-founder Paige Northway explained that HuskySat-1 will repeatedly energize the surface of a small block of sulfur, turning some of the sulfur into plasma. The plasma’s rapid expansion propels the satellite forward.
Plasma pulsed thrusters (PPT) like these have been done before, starting with the Soviet Zond 2 in the 1960s. But HuskySat-1 is the first to use sulfur, as opposed to the traditional Teflon, as the solid fuel.
On the other end of the satellite sits the K-Band radio. HuskySat-1 is one of the first university satellites to use this higher frequency, allowing HuskySat-1 to send data to the control station in Johnson Hall much faster than in traditional transmission bands — something that’s crucial when communication can only take place when the satellite is overhead. According to Northway, typical windows of communication only last about nine to 15 minutes.
The end of HuskySat-1’s three-month mission will close an important chapter for HuskySatLab, one that began several years ago.
“Throughout the course of the project, we have had several people come through,” Northway said. “I would guess on the order of 80 undergrads have been on this team over the approximately five years we’ve been working on it, and then as many as six grad students have contributed.”
HuskySatLab has completed other projects as stepping-stones to the satellite mission.
“We have a high altitude balloon for testing,” operations lead Nathan Wacker said. “It’s an easy way to test space equipment and an easy way to bring new members on and come up with engineering experience real quick. You see a lot of new folks working on that.”
But for all the trials, tribulations, and triumphs that the HuskySatLab has gone through, for Northway, Wacker, and Winglee, the journey was its own reward.
“I’m happy with the project, but it’s more about the journey rather than the destination,” Wacker said. Many HuskySatLab students, he noted, have gone on to engineering jobs across many disciplines. “I’d like to think that they got a lot of their stuff here.”
Northway agreed wholeheartedly, expressing excitement to watch the launch and pride in the work HuskySatLab has done.
“The whole point is to have students fail in a safe environment,” Winglee said. “Things have gone wrong. Things have been corrected. And that’s tough work for the students. But I think they appreciate it, and getting it to launch is the best part of the whole mission.”
A potential HuskySat-2, Winglee said, could use the technologies HuskySat-1 pioneered to conduct research of its own in space.
“Maybe HuskySat-2, with a proper propulsion unit, could actually go look for asteroids in near Earth orbit, for example,” he said. “That can open up new discoveries, and that’s what we’re hoping to move the students towards.” HuskySat-1 is scheduled to launch from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 6:59 a.m. PST this Saturday, Nov. 2, with HuskySatLab leadership in attendance. The launch will be streamed live at https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive.